Brownfields Cleanup Revolving
Loan Fund Pilot Fact Sheet

Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, KS

EPA's Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative is designed to empower states, communities, and other stakeholders in economic redevelopment to work together in a timely manner to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfield is a site, or portion thereof, that has actual or perceived contamination and an active potential for redevelopment or reuse. EPA is funding: assessment demonstration pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years), to assess brownfields sites and to test cleanup and redevelopment models; job training pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years), to provide training for residents of communities affected by brownfields to facilitate cleanup of brownfields sites and prepare trainees for future employment in the environmental field; and, cleanup revolving loan fund programs (each funded up to $500,000 over five years) to capitalize loan funds to make loans for the environmental cleanup of brownfields. These pilot programs are intended to provide EPA, states, tribes, municipalities, and communities with useful information and strategies as they continue to seek new methods to promote a unified approach to site assessment, environmental cleanup, and redevelopment.

PILOT SNAPSHOT
	Date of Announcement: May 2000 Amount: $500,000
BCRLF Target Area: Northeast community and other Enhanced Enterprise Community districts

BACKGROUND

Kansas City, Kansas is the largest of three incorporated municipalities in Wyandotte County. Over the past 30 years, the City has experienced a decline in population and an erosion of its business base. In 1996, the governmental bodies unified to combat these problems. The new institutional structure is referred to as the Unified Government (UG).

Economic distress is prevalent throughout Wyandotte County. It is most evident in the northeast section of Kansas City. The poverty rate in this area is nearly 30 percent, significantly higher than the 18 percent rate in the City as a whole. UG's BCRLF will target the northeast community and other Federal Enhanced Enterprise Community districts as well as properties throughout the City and Wyandotte County. The cities of Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri were designated a bi-state Brownfields Assessment Pilot and a Federal Showcase Community.

BCRLF OBJECTIVES

The goals and objectives of UG's BCRLF include:

Creating jobs and expanding the tax base, especially in environmental justice communities;
Preventing the creation of new brownfields and preserving green space;
Creating business development opportunities for local entrepreneurs; and
Developing a nationally replicable model for a BCRLF loan pool.

The BCRLF is targeting the following sites: the Parallel Parkway Improvement Corridor; National Compressed Steel; S&G Metals; other industrial sites; and the Riverfront Heritage Trail bicycle/pedestrian pathways.

FUND STRUCTURE AND OPERATIONS

The UG will serve as lead agency and the US Army Corps of Engineers Kansas City District will act as site manager. The UG's Department of Development will perform the fund manager functions.

LEVERAGING OTHER RESOURCES

To leverage the BCRLF award, the UG intends to apply to the Kansas Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) for up to $1 million of additional seed capital in the form of a loan from the CWSRF. The UG also is pursuing leveraging funds under the Fannie Mae Kansas City Partnership program, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development programs, and funding from the Kansas City, Kansas Lender's Consortium. The UG will contribute staff time to the Pilot and will coordinate the BCRLF program with its Showcase Community and Job Training and Development Pilots.

Use of BCRLF Pilot funds must be in accordance with CERCLA, and all CERCLA restrictions on use of funding also apply to BCRLF funds.

CONTACTS

Unified Government Department of Development
(913) 573-5730

Region 7 BCRLF Coordinator
(913) 551-7786

Visit the EPA Region 7 Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/region7/cleanup/brownfields/index.htm

For further information, including specific Pilot contacts, additional Pilot information, brownfields news and events, and publications and links, visit the EPA Brownfields web site at: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/

United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460

Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5101)

EPA 500-F-00-159
May 2000

Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5105)

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Brownfields Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund Pilot Fact Sheet